Thursday, 14 December 2017

Surfing the waves

Standing on the board, riding the wave a rush of glory hit me. I landed smoothly on the shore and shouted out a victory yell. I looked out into the ocean and gave a huge smile to my instructor.

I has successfully rode my first wave, I successfully surfed for the first time.

10 days ago when I heard about the surfing trip my father and brother were going for, a thought crossed my mind " I am not an adventure sports person, not even in my wildest dreams can I surf." Then you may ask how I landed up in the vast ocean surfing, well thanks to my mother. With a big smile on her face she said to me, " Go give it try, you will enjoy and worst case you play in the beach and come back"

We went to this amazing place in Mulki, Karnataka called Surfing Ashram. The place is beautiful, the food is gourmet, the people warm-hearted and zealous and above all the surfing is an out of the world experience. My head swam with thoughts of fear and anxiety as we approached our three day stay at the surfing ashram. I was stepping out of my comfort zone, and I knew this was going to be difficult.

After two and a half hours of perseverance , I had failed on day one. I was unable to stand up on the board, out of fear I clutched the ends of the surfing board and would not stand up. For those who have never seen surfing, let me tell you a little. Surfing is riding - balancing on a wave using a surf board. First you lie down on your stomach on the surf board and when you paddle into the wave - you pop up to stand up and balance yourself, riding the wave.

The pop up was where I was finding it challenging and as we headed back a sense of gloom fell upon me. Then I thought "Hey today was your first day, yes others where able to do in the first day but so what? You will get it, all you have to do is try and you will also learn eventually. Its okay to learn slowly."

A determination to learn surfing, to get it right fell upon me, as I awaited the next day I started visualizing myself doing surfing - doing it right, I started telling myself I am capable, I am fit enough, I can do it. This self talk and self motivating with a lot of repeat visualizing really did the trick. Of course the encouragement and support of the instructors and my dad helped too.

At the end I had a superlative trip, lots of fun surfing, playing in the beach waters, kayaking and stand up paddling. The trip was really about me breaking my boundaries and challenging myself. It was about and falling and still standing - and let me tell you , you fall a lot in surfing, falling in the water is part of the fun:)